Comments on: Ukulele Window Shopping – Mahogany Fleas and Flukes

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:15:11 +0000

Ken: I’ve heard back from BugsGear and they are official OEM distributors for Eleuke. So they can mess around with the design and rebrand them. All on the up and up.

Oswegan: Thanks very much for the write up. I don’t have to many problems with my Eleuke. It’s fit for purpose: a silent ukulele (which Fleas and Flukes definitely aren’t).

By: Oswegan

Oswegan — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:20:12 +0000

Agreed, for the price, the basic flea and fluke blows them out of the water.

By: byjimini

byjimini — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:25:20 +0000

Very interesting, Oswegan, since I had manufacture problems on mine too. In fact I thought the build quality for something worth £150 wasn’t very good at all.

By: Oswegan

Oswegan — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:42:00 +0000

I just have to comment on the Eleuke product. I played several of them over the past couple of weeks because I wanted a solid body electric and I was really attracted to the idea of practicing with headphones at night.

After seeing several of them up close, and lightly strumming them in the shops, I noticed right away that, although I liked the sound and feel, there was a major problem in the quality control.

Each one that I played had its own unique cosmetic or structural flaw, whether bad paint/finish or just plain sloppy manufacturing.

I thought maybe it was an anomaly, or a condition of the display models I saw, so I ordered one direct from the distributor.

It was the new 2009 tenor jazz cutaway in sunburst gloss finish.

When I received it, the first issue with it was that it wasn’t even close to the color of the others I had seen, or the ones on their website. Second, it wasn’t gloss, it was satin – apparently both have the same part number so there is no way for the distributor to distinguish gloss or satin absent opening the box. Third, and worst of all, the ebony nut is such poor quality that the C string popped right out on any note bend on the top four frets – and even during a basic rockin blues strum. This happened – not just to me – every couple of minutes during a normal jam session.

On the advice of the dealer, I went to a luthier who tried to fix it by deepening the slot and adjusting the action, but ultimately said that really to be able to play it in a normal way it would require a custom nut – not cheap.

The dealer offered to replace the eleuke with another new one, but before agreeing to that, I went and tried the same style of play on several other eleukes and discovered that most all of them had the same issue.

I ultimately decided to return it and not replace it – even though I had what I thought was a great deal at $179, well below msrp.

The bottom line (for me) is that Eleuke is a toy and if you truly want to play electric uke, you need to move up to a better quality instrument.

Just my opinion.

By: cardboardfrog

cardboardfrog — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 16:45:22 +0000

wow, that postcard is just something else, i quite like the look of the clear water electrics, i hear good things about thier electroacoustics so i might invest in one

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:25:54 +0000

Thanks, Ken. That is misleading. I’ve updated the post and contacted the seller and BugsGear. So we’ll see how legit it is.

By: Ken Middleton

Ken Middleton — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 13:36:37 +0000

The Eleukes that have turned up on eBay UK are “imitations” made by Clearwater. They may actually be made in the same factory as the real ones, but I think it is misleading (and probably illegal) to be using the name “Eleuke”.

By: Woodshed

Woodshed — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:18:21 +0000

Andy: You should have known people wouldn’t be able to resist sharing you with the world.

Steven: Not sure why the went with laminated. Their koas are solid. And not all that much more expensive.

byjimini: I didn’t notice a big sustain problem with my Eleuke. But I do mostly use it for silent practice.

By: byjimini

byjimini — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:57:58 +0000

I love the look of the Eleuke’s, but after having one for a week I wouldn’t buy one again. There’s no sustain, which makes it sound rather odd, especially since you’d expect it to be the hardcore cousin of the uke family like you know the electric guitar is of the guitar family.

I’d say it was like David Beckham; glorious when playing and looks great, but you frown when he opens his mouth to speak. Ho-hum.

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:53:50 +0000

The hog Fleas and Flukes look nice, but they are veneers, not solid tops. I wonder if it would make a difference.